SCULLY - ARAB TOY
By Kingdom.
PART 1
For about ten minutes it was perfect. Mulder beside her, on
horseback, heading for the Pyramids in time for the sunset. Scully
purred inside and gave a grateful thankyou to Skinner for having
arranged this break for them and then insisting that they went. What
could be better?
As Mulder's horse lowered its left front leg to the desert, it
suddenly caught sight of a scorpion, tail raised, just in front of it.
The horse screamed in panic, threw back its head and bolted straight
ahead. Taken by surprise, Mulder lost contact with one of the
stirrups and it took all of his agile strength to hold on as the horse
galloped away. He did not have time to think about Scully as he was
too busy saving himself from crashing to the ground.
In shock Scully's horse took off as fast as it could run, but away to
the right, at right angles to Mulder's disappearing tracks. Scully
was no horsewoman but she had been told that the secret to staying on
was to grip with your knees. She lowered her head against the rushing
wind and gripped as hard as she could, determined to stay on no matter
how fast the horse ran.
For ten or fifteen minutes the horse rushed across the desert sand
until its strength began to weaken and the panic drained out of it.
Scully found that she was panting for breath as they eventually came
to a halt in a circular dune. Looking up and around her for the first
time since the horse had bolted, Scully realised that she might be
lost. In principle it should be easy. Turn around and go back the
way they had come. But the desert wind was strong enough to brush
away their tracks and the horse might not always have run in a
straight line.
With a determined look in her eyes Scully turned the horse's head and
kicked in with her heels to drive it up the sides of the dune. A
while later and all that she could see was sand. Dammit, she thought,
why didn't I bring a compass or something? A radio? It was beginning
to get dark and she didn't like the feeling of being out here in the
scary desert on her own. She tried calling for help, shouting for
Mulder, but her voice seemed to be thin and wispy, blown away in the
wind.
Standing as tall as she could in her stirrups the only feature that
broke the endless sand was a thin dark line over to her left. There
were no other clues to aim for, so she turned towards it. To her
great relief as she neared it, she saw that it was a basic road.
Something man made at least, and that promised rescue. With greater
confidence Scully turned up onto the road and encouraged the horse to
trot a little faster.
Darkness fell but there was enough light from the moon to see the road
clearly, so Scully pressed on. Tired and almost in a trance as she
trotted slowly through the dark desert, the first light broke ahead.
Scully stopped the horse to see what it was. In a moment it was clear
that it was the headlights of a vehicle and it looked as if it was
heading towards her. Scully found that her heart was beating hard as
she hoped that the car or whatever it was would come down her road and
not turn off, leaving her alone again.
Sure enough as she waited, the lights came closer until she could see
that it was some sort of 4 x 4 jeep heading towards her. Scully
slipped down from her horse and stood in the middle of the road, her
arms out, waving the jeep to a halt in front of her. Bathed in the
bright, yellow lights of its headlights Scully could see very little
of the vehicle or its passengers.
But the jeep pulled to a halt in front of her and an Arab slipped out
of the driver's door leaving the engine running. Scully had the
impression of a brown leathery face, used to the sand and desert, and
noticed the moonlight glinting off a gold tooth as he spoke to her.
In broken English he demanded:
"You American? You Scully?"
Scully was so relieved to hear her name that she felt tears welling in
her eyes.
"Yes, oh yes. Thank God! I'm so glad to see you...."
"Come, plis."
The Arab gestured towards the jeep and led the way. Scully followed,
her horse behind her. Instead of taking her to the passenger door,
the Arab headed for the back of the jeep. By the time Scully had
reached him the doors were open and he was poking around inside the
back. Scully thought that he was making space for her to climb into
the back and happily ducked her head in through the back doors. As
she did so a strong brown arm wrapped itself around her and a pad of
chemicals was pressed into her nose.
Exhausted from her adventure and taken by surprise, Scully barely
struggled before the chloroform hit and she collapsed limply into the
back of the jeep.
